Saturday, February 11, 2012

Are You Portable?

The March issue of The Writer magazine has an interesting article by David Harris Ebenbach titled "The Portable Writer." He says he worries when he hears a writer say they can only write at a certain time or in a certain place or in a special kind of journal with a special pen or only on the computer. Unfortunately for us the perfect conditions are elusive. It would be nice to be able to go to an artist's colony in the mountains or a writer's retreat by the sea, but those conditions are short lived. I decided to take stock of my own writing routine to see how portable I am. Not very, I'm afraid. I go to the library at 9:00 in the morning. I sit down at the last table in the back of the nonfiction section. I spread  my paraphernalia all over the table and get to work. I get a lot done and wrap things up after about two hours. But then last Tuesday, horror of horrors. Someone's sitting at my table! Messed up my whole day. Then the magazine came in the mail and I read the article. Like the song says, there'll be some changes made. I'll clean off my desk so I can use it to write on instead of catching clutter. The kitchen table has possibilites. Stellar Beans and Books a Million every now and then. My brother has a nice cabin on the river. How about you? How portable are you?

3 comments:

  1. Love this post. Makes us take stock and question ourselves with "Are we writers or do we just write only when it's convenient?"

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  2. I want to go to your brother's cabin on the river! Yes, I do! Good post. I'm not very portable either.

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  3. I'll have to look for that article. I have to admit, I don't have any particular place to be inspired. Maybe if I did I'd have more focus and actually finish something. Changing physical space can change perspective and open a new vein in your story. So, it can be good for us as writers.

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